Bara/NW Hyper Defense 1.0

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This past Sunday I went to my first tournament outside of my local meta of about 6 players. The Store Championship in Boonton NJ there were 26 people all from PA, NJ, and NY. I have always been a fan of and about a week ago I decided I would add in the and make a deck as defensive as I possibly could make it. Gaining power in unique ways while stalling my opponent as long as possible. I made some adjustments after seeing a similar deck on here called Mounted Trophies by Kryzon. I talk about some changes I am going to make at the end please comment with thoughts and opinions on how I could improve it.

First game "The Rains of Castamere"

We both got set up early he had Arianne Martell going in and out as well as Nymeria Sand duped while I got a good start with The Wall, The Red Keep, The Haunted Forest, Benjen Stark, and some chud. The game was going pretty evenly for a while till I made a terrible mistake. He had used Attainted on my Fiery Followers and in my head I considered them useless in challenges because at the time they were my only he did a 9 strength and I remember thinking I wish I could stop him from winning by 9 and blocked with a 3 forgetting I also had Fiery Followers (the boards were quite big at this point) he Put to the Torch The Wall and next turn was Valar Morghulis. The game lasted a few more turns but very slowly after Valar Morghulis it would have been close but I might have been able to pull it out in the end if I still had The Wall. Result Lost 10 - 15

Second game Banner of the Watch

His deck was seemed like it was built to do something similar to mine but I got everything I needed out very fast and he conceded after just a few turns not much to tell about the game my deck worked about as perfectly as I could have wanted it to and gained power very fast. Through a combination of The Wall, Thoren Smallwood, my plots and dominance. Result Win 15 - ? I can't remember

Third game Banner of the Kraken

He setup Tywin Lannister (Core) and a reducer with a roseroad I began with The Wall duped with Sworn Brother and The Haunted Forest. This game I was regularly saved by In the Name of Your King!. He really tried to focus on Military challenges which I found out later he had Put to the Sword however I tended to have the right answers to stall him till eventually he couldn't pull it out. Wildfire Assault was a massive help in this game at one point he had Tywin Lannister (Core) w/ Bodyguard Tyrion Lannister (VDS) Ser Jaime Lannister (Core) duped and Victarion Greyjoy with two dupes who I had placed craven on, as well as a few other no names and I used wildfire. This was a close game but in the end I managed to lock him out as I gained power. Result Win I honestly don't remember the exact score but it was pretty close he had somewhere between 11-13

Fourth game The Lord of the Crossing

This was my favorite game of the day. I again got my combos running quickly and was gaining power rather steadily throughout the game. He got Arianne Martell and Nymeria Sand out quick but I was usually managing to keep him at bay. Again In the Name of Your King! was a huge help. I had a real trouble pulling icons this game and the few I had he was removing with Maester Caleotte and Nymeria Sand luckily I was able to use In the Name of Your King! 3 times to stall him. Eventually I put out Thoren Smallwood he put out The Red Viper I was able to Nightmares The Red Viper on what would have been a massive swing. On turn 6 the score was 14-13 in my favor. However he had a lot more strength and had Nymeria Sand, The Red Viper, and Doran Martell out as well as several others(this is after my Wildfire Assault and his Valar Morghulis) There wasn't anything I could do except hope to pull one of my two remaining Nightmares and hit The Red Viper when he power challenged. Sadly I didn't pull Nightmares. Result Lost 14 - 17ish

Fifth game Banner of the Kraken

This game went horribly I got started quickly had some chud and Maester Aemon and Benjen Stark with The Wall and The Haunted Forest. But after he played The First Snow of Winter second turn I had difficulty keeping up with his Ser Jaime Lannister (Core), Tyrion Lannister (Core), Tywin Lannister (Core), Ser Ilyn Payne, Rattleshirt's Raiders even Wildfire Assault didn't really help give me too much momentum I definitely knew it was over after the turn I played Melisandre (Core) he immediately used Milk of the Poppy and I had 2 Fiery Followers and my Asshai Priestess in hand. Maester Cressen nowhere to be found. Result Lost 15 - 9

Thoughts:

I was very happy with the consistency of the deck even when I didn't have The Wall out it was very good at gaining power while being deffensive mostly due to the dominance package from . I was also surprised that although I did see Political Disaster in my first game and he used it twice since we went 13 plots it didn't destroy me as much as I expected.

Changes:

I need more mid cost characters I did not expect to see The First Snow of Winter and didn't realize how badly that plot destroys me. I also want a little more . I'm thinking of removing 1 Benjen Stark I drew him more than I needed him he doesn't need to be duped, 2 Sworn Brothers they are useful but I think I need to take out a few of my super cheap stuff. I was thinking about adding 1 Asshai Priestess 1 Littlefinger, and 1 City Watch. If I'm putting in a little more expensive stuff I need a little more econ so I think I will remove 1 Chamber of the Painted Table and 1 The Red Keep and add 2 The Kingsroads. One of my opponents suggested trading Sneak Attack for A Clash of Kings which I like I was using Sneak Attack mostly for high initiative plot if I needed it in a pinch. The last change is though Craven is a great card I found most times I didn't care if a character attacked it was the abilities that were hurting far more in all my games everytime I got a craven I wished it were a milk so I'm swapping my Cravens for Milk of the Poppy